


Zebra Fish

by thesoulofchaos



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 11:59:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17203028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesoulofchaos/pseuds/thesoulofchaos
Summary: Claire appreciates Shaun's company (based in Series 1)





	Zebra Fish

**Author's Note:**

> For the 2018, 12 Days of Christmas challenge

Claire enjoyed working with Shaun. She often thought she was the only resident who did; perhaps - apart from Dr Glassman - the only doctor who did.

They had their moments where miscommunication happened, sure. Like when Claire had muttered the phrase  _ “Close but no cigar” _ when she was practising a surgical stitch on one of the anatomical mock-ups and Shaun had promptly informed her that cigars and smoking in general were a terrible thing to aim for on account of their correlation with cancer. Claire had just smiled and let Shaun chatter away because, for whatever reason, when she had a backdrop of his monologue she could concentrate better.

Or there was the time that Shaun had called her - which was a big enough shock on its own given the man’s general dislike of telephones - at three o’clock in the morning to ask for clarification about something she had said the day before. Claire had thought about hanging up but at the last moment answered his questions and told him they would talk again at work. Then she had a long conversation with him about what was important enough to wake her up at three a.m.

But Shaun was interesting and funny, he was hard-working and he cared - he didn’t always show it in the same way other people did but Claire could see how much he cared.

So when Doctor Melendez tore Claire apart yet again for something she was  _ certain _ she had seen Jared get away with multiple times, she didn’t want it to be Jared who comforted her in the locker room and take her hand in his and squeeze it, telling her that everything would be okay. All she could focus on then was that his hand was too warm, too clammy from being inside surgical gloves. She had smiled and thanked him and done all the things she was supposed to say and do, then left to walk to the bus with Shaun.

Shaun didn’t reach for her hand and she didn’t want him to. She liked that he didn’t make the situation worse by making her try to understand how she should be responding to his physical gestures. Instead he went off on a tangent about zebra fish and Claire had no idea why this was the topic he wanted to talk about but that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because by the time it was her stop on the bus, they weren’t talking about zebra fish anymore and for a good thirty minutes Claire hadn’t thought at all about Doctor Melendez or how unfairly he was treating her.

And she wasn’t even sure if Shaun had done that all on purpose but really it didn’t matter because that was what they did and, for whatever reason, it worked.


End file.
